As far as I can see, the requirements to develop for any iOS device are:
1. Own a Mac computer that runs the latest version operating system.
2. Register with Apple to be an iOS developer for $99.00 + tax, annually.
3. Own an iOS device that runs the latest iOS operating system your application will support. For a professional iOS developer, that means the latest operating system out.
Am I wrong?
If so, where? I've just bought a brand new iMac and I'm looking for a used iPhone. I want to make sure I buy one that will allow me to develop iOS in the latest version.
Yes, I worked at a company doing iOS development and I had to do those three things (They handled the registration), and nothing more. You don't need a physical phone either though, XCode comes with a pretty good simulator. When working I almost always used the simulator, occasionally pulling the real device for touch/UI testing. It's still important to check functionality in real life if you have a nontrivial UI, since it's hard to know how the UI "feels".
You need the latest version of Xcode (requirements for Xcode 10 can be found in this post). Having a relatively up to date Mac usually does the trick.
You need an Apple Developer account - $99 / year for personal account or $299 / year for enterprise account.
You do not technically need any iOS devices to do iOS development and releases; however, the simulator does not have all the functionality a real device has. So depending on your features, it may be required. Also, some bugs only show up on certain devices, so it’s always good to test on as many real world devices as possible. For more details on the capabilities of the iOS Simulator, check here.
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I have been searching for an answer for this for a while now and I can't seem to get a straight answer anywhere. I'm new to iOS development and am looking to get started porting my android app over to make my first iOS app. I'm not a big apple user, so I'm just running xcode in a VM and trying to build and test on my old ipod touch 3rd generation running iOS 5.1.1. I understand how out of date this is, but I want to develop and test on this device for 2 reasons:
I dont want to buy a $750 new apple product just to test my very simple app
When I publish my app, I want to reach the most users possible
So my question is this:
In xcode 8, is it possible to develop applications with a deployment target of iOS 5.1.1?
If so, will it build for all versions of iOS?
When I attach my ipod to xcode, it says device is not supported, can I fix this by installing some 5.1.1 developer package or sdk to allow support? Or would I have to build, then manually install and test each iteration?
If all of these are possible, and I build an app targeted to 5.1.1, can I publish it to the app store? If I open the app store on my 5.1.1 ipod, there are still apps in the store with recent update dates, so people must still be releasing updates to apps on iOS 5.1.1 right? Or am I missing something and an app that runs on iOS 5.1.1 is entirely banned by Apple.
A lot of questions, but If possible I really want to do this. Even getting a fully known, confirmed answer for ANY of these questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
I dont want to buy a $750 new apple product just to test my very
simple app
Xcode has a simulator, you don't need a device to test your app.
When I publish my app, I want to reach the most users possible
As of July 31th 2017, https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/
86% of devices are using iOS 10.
11% of devices are using iOS 9.
3% of devices are using earlier. (probably iOS 8)
It makes sense that you have this concern coming from Android, but iOS is quite different. Devices are designed to be uniform and apple encourages (almost forces) people to update them. (You won't stop receiving a notification to update your device)
It would actually be bad to focus on developing for that specific device you have, specially because a lot of the APIs will be deprecated, plus the screen ratio of that specific device is not so common.
In xcode 8, is it possible to develop applications with a deployment
target of iOS 5.1.1?
No*
If so, will it build for all versions of iOS?
Kind of, it will run but it won't probably be what you expect until you FIX it for that specific iOS version. (many things break between iOS updates so developers are sometimes forced to branch code)
When I attach my ipod to xcode, it says device is not supported, can I
fix this by installing some 5.1.1 developer package or sdk to allow
support? Or would I have to build, then manually install and test each
iteration?
Maybe, but probably not. You can actually copy files from older xcodes to enable testing in newer ones. You can search about how to do this by googling for "Using iOS 7 in Xcode 8". However I doubt going as far back as iOS 5 will be possible. The Xcode needed for running on iOS 5 is not even supported macOS Sierra (The newest OS)
If all of these are possible, and I build an app targeted to 5.1.1,
can I publish it to the app store? If I open the app store on my 5.1.1
ipod, there are still apps in the store with recent update dates, so
people must still be releasing updates to apps on iOS 5.1.1 right? Or
am I missing something and an app that runs on iOS 5.1.1 is entirely
banned by Apple.
Theoretically yes, iOS Apps can still "support" old iOS version, the reason why developers drop support for older os is because it gets increasingly hard to debug them as well as they just don't have support for new features and APIs that come with newer iOS.
My suggestion if you are really obsessed with building for iOS 5.1.1 is to ensure it's a 64 bit app:
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/CocoaTouch64BitGuide/ConvertingYourAppto64-Bit/ConvertingYourAppto64-Bit.html
And Download an old version of Xcode: (Maybe Xcode 7 or 6?)
https://developer.apple.com/download/more/
But I think you still have to Build with xcode 8 since you need to build against their latest SDK. The old Xcode is just to develop for it and facilitate debugging.
Over last two months, I successfully finished simple Android application. The application uses Qt framework and should therefore be compatible with iPhones as well.
The development software for iPhones only works on iOS. I am working in a company, therefore the development process must be completely legal - downloading hacked iOS from warez sites is not possible.
My question is, whether apple provides iOS release for programmers (or QA staff or whatever needs) that can be installed on non Mac devices, ideally in virtual environment. Whether the release is free or requires purchase does not matter, but it must be in accordance with Apple's terms of use.
No, Xcode runs on Macs only. But why do not you buy a used computer? It will be cheaper and a good choice for start.
I am wondering if it is possible to downgrade an iPhone to older versions of iOS even when the firmware is not signed by Apple.
I am a developer and I might need to install iOS6/7 on my iPhone, which currently has iOS8.
Is there a way to do that?
No, if you had an older device and saved the SHSH blobs when Apple were still signing the firmware then you would be able to.
I keep an old device for each major version of the OS from 4 upwards, and you get get them on ebay for quite cheap. iOS 6 is a very small percentage of the overall market now, so unless you are needing to support it for a specific reason it would be best to drop support.
If anyone is still interested in this in 2017, you can save your SHSH2 blobs by following this guide & then using Prometheus from Tihmstar.
I just started developing for the iPhone with Xamarin free. I have the free edition and I don't have an Apple Development license.
Is it possible to jailbreak my iPhone 5s and deploy on the jailbroken iPhone? I read somewhere that it will be difficult because of Cydia.
And can I deploy with the free edition?
Tnx!
I do Xamarin development (with the business license but that doesn't matter) on my jailbroken iPhone 5s on iOS 7.0.6 with no problems.
However, if you are asking if you can develop jailbreak tweaks with the xamarin tools, that is a different thing. I want to know that exact thing so I asked a question here but didn't really find a good solution. You would have to compile it to a library (not an application) that your tweak would reference. Your other problem is that you would probably want to use a private API that Xamarin doesn't expose/wrap.
Xamarin, now, allows you to deploy to device with the Starter edition as long as the app is below a certain size.
Lastly, this is probably the biggest killer for you, you can't deploy to your device without being in the apple developer program. You need to have certificates to sign your builds and make publishing profiles to allow your phone to run ad-hoc/debug builds which can only be made through apple's dev site. This is also where you can register your device(s) as a testing device.
I am an experienced developer starting on my first iOS project. I am comfortable with the hardware and software that I will be using, but confused about the dependencies between the various components to achieve what I need to do.
Here's what I have:
iMac 21.5 inch, i5 processor 2011 vintage
OSX 10.7.5
XCode 4.2.1
iOS SDK 5.0/4.3/4.2
iPhone 4 running iOS 7
I first became aware of a problem, when XCode refused to let me download the app I am developing to the device. Presumably because I am targeting iOS 5, while the phone is on iOS 7.
I am hesitant to rush off and upgrade everything, as I am aware with Apple this is often a one-way street. For example, I bought the iPhone second hand that the vender had already upgraded to iOS 7, and now I cannot downgrade.
Here's what I want to be able to do:
Use my current hardware for development
Publish new apps in the App Store
Test my app on my iPhone (and preferably older models also)
Support iOS7 plus as many older iOS versions as possible
If possible, have the app use older controls styling (-iOS6) on iOS7
Can someone help me with my thought process through the various dependencies, and what versions I am going to need to achieve these aims?
You'll still be able to develop for iOS6 and earlier if you have the latest version of XCode, just set your deployment target accordingly. With XCode 5 though Apple stopped including the iOS5 simulators and earlier, so you would have to manually download it and include it if you wanted to use that.
Note that to develop with a real device (not just on the Simulator), you need to have an Apple Developer license and have added the device through the Developer portal.